Our Work
Early Childhood Education
Few skills matter more to a child’s future than their ability to learn to read and do math because it’s an essential building block for later academic and life outcomes. A focus on early childhood education is both a short-term and long-term commitment to Texans that jobs and economic opportunity are within reach for families.
Our Work
Early Childhood Education
Few skills matter more to a child’s future than their ability to learn to read and do math because it’s an essential building block for later academic and life outcomes. A focus on early childhood education is both a short-term and long-term commitment to Texans that jobs and economic opportunity are within reach for families.
Early education is crucial. By third grade, children who read proficiently are four times more likely to graduate high school, and students who establish foundational math skills are likelier to take higher-level STEM courses in the years ahead.
By 2029, STEM jobs are expected to grow nationally by 8%, outpacing total job growth and requiring workers with higher educational degrees. The workforce of the future begins its training in today’s preschool and early elementary classrooms.
Every Child Deserves a Strong Start
Once kids fall behind, catching up is a significant challenge. Only one in five manage to catch up by sixth grade. In math, it’s even worse – only one in ten kids catches up.
If a child hasn’t received quality education by the time they are nine years old, they are likely to struggle for the rest of their education. Playing catch-up is ineffective and impractical.
Where We’re Headed
We must address early education deficiencies head-on. Money budgeted toward early education is a wise investment that actually saves money over time. By providing students with a strong academic foundation, we can avoid expensive remediation efforts in the future.
How we support early childhood education in Texas:
- Increase access to high-quality Pre-K classrooms across multiple settings. To achieve this we must adjust the Early Education Allotment (EEA) so Pre-K 3 & 4 students generate the funding weight. Then we should innovate with regional coordination and technical assistance strategies for Pre-K Partnerships. Finally Texas should pilot competitive childcare grant programs to target regional supply needs.
- Codify the Early Childhood Integrated Data System to empower leaders to make systems-wide data-driven decisions where insights are currently siloed across 4+ state agencies.
